1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge, and more particularly to a tilting hinge suitably usable for supporting a component part, such as a display panel, of a small office-automation apparatus, such as a notebook computer, pivotably on a stationary structure of the apparatus, such as a keyboard or body of the notebook computer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical one of the conventional tilting hinges of this type, a flange is provided on a shaft fixed to a first bracket to be fixed to the body, such as a keyboard, of an apparatus, such as a notebook computer, a second bracket to be fixed to a component part, such as a display panel, of the apparatus is born rotatably born on the shaft, a disc-like friction washer is provided between the second bracket and the flange of the shaft or at either side of the second bracket, the friction washer having formed in the center thereof a through-hole in which the shaft is inserted, a disc-like spring washer is provided abutting the friction washer, the spring washer having formed in the center thereof a through-hole in which the shaft is also inserted, and the end of the shaft is riveted or fastened with a nut to press the spring washer and friction washer to each other. When the second bracket is rotated, a friction torque is generated between the friction washer and spring washer.
Recently, the office-automation apparatuses, more particularly, the portable personal computers such as a notebook computer, laptop computer, etc., have been designed more and more compact and thinner. Therefore, the tilting hinges used with such compact personal computers should be correspondingly compact and able to create a high friction torque.
For the conventional tilting torque to work with such a high friction, it is necessary to use washers having a larger diameter, which however will not meet the requirements for the portable computers to have an increased compactness and decreased thickness. Otherwise, it is necessary to use more than one friction washer and spring washer in pair or to increase the caulking torque or nut tightening torque. However, the former case will lead to an increased number of parts of the tilting hinge. Thus, the manufacturing cost for the tilting hinge will be higher. The latter case will lead to an easy abrasion of the friction and spring washers of the tilting hinge. Namely, the durability of the tilting hinge will be lower.
Also, in the conventional tilting hinges, a lubricant is used between the friction and spring washers. Because of the construction of the conventional tilting hinge, the lubricant is likely to leak from the outer edges of the washers and stick to the hand of an installer of an office-automation apparatus during assembling of the apparatus. The lubricant will thus stain the apparatus.
Therefore, the present invention has an object to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art by providing a compact, small operating-radius, simply constructed tilting hinge able to work with a high friction torque.
According to the present invention, there is provided a tilting hinge including:
a first bracket consisting of a fixing plate portion and a bearing plate portion bent at a right angle relative to the fixing plate portion, the fixing plate portion being fixed to the body of an apparatus or a component part installed pivotably to the apparatus body, and the bearing plate portion having a non-circular bearing hole formed therein;
a cylindrical member having a fixing portion formed at one end thereof and a friction torque generating through-hole formed axially therein, the fixing end portion being inserted and fixed in the non-circular bearing hole in the bearing plate portion of the first bracket;
a second bracket consisting of a fixing plate portion and a bearing plate portion bent at a right angle relative to the fixing plate portion, the fixing plate portion being fixed to the pivotable component part or apparatus body and the bearing plate portion having a non-circular bearing hole formed therein; and
a radially-elastic spring pin having provided at one end thereof a fixing end portion which is inserted and fixed in the non-circular bearing hole in the bearing plate portion of the second bracket;
the spring pin being press-fitted first at the free end thereof into the friction torque generating hole in the cylinder from the cylinder end fixed to the second bracket, to be rotatable with a friction with the wall surface of the friction torque generating hole in the cylinder.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a tilting hinge including:
a first bracket consisting of a fixing plate portion and a bearing plate portion bent at a right angle relative to the fixing plate portion, the bearing plate portion having a non-circular bearing hole formed therein and being fixed to the body of an apparatus or a component part installed pivotably to the apparatus body;
a tubular cylindrical member inserted and fixed at one end thereof in the non-circular bearing hole in the bearing plate portion of the first bracket and having formed axially therein a friction torque generating bore;
a second bracket consisting of a fixing plate portion and a bearing plate portion bent at a right angle relative to the fixing plate portion, the bearing plate portion having a non-circular bearing hole formed therein and being fixed to the pivotable component part or apparatus body; and
a radially-elastic spring pin fixed at one end thereof in the non-circular bearing hole in the bearing plate portion of the second bracket;
the spring pin being press-fitted first at the free end thereof from the free end of the cylinder into the friction torque generating bore to be rotatable with a friction with the wall surface of the friction torque generating bore in the cylinder.
According to the present invention, there is further provided a tilting hinge including:
a first bracket consisting of a fixing plate portion and a bearing plate portion bent at a right angle relative to the fixing plate portion, the bearing plate portion having a non-circular bearing hole formed therein and being fixed to the body of an apparatus or a component part installed pivotably to the apparatus body;
a tubular cylindrical member inserted and fixed at one end thereof in the non-circular bearing hole in the bearing plate portion of the first bracket and having formed axially therein a friction torque generating bore;
a second bracket consisting of a fixing plate portion and a bearing plate portion bent at a right angle relative to the fixing plate portion, the bearing plate portion having a non-circular bearing hole formed therein and being fixed to the component part or apparatus body; and
a radially-elastic spring pin fixed at one end thereof in the non-circular bearing hole in the bearing plate portion of the second bracket;
the spring pin being press-fitted first at the free end thereof from the free end of the cylinder into the friction torque generating bore in the cylinder to be rotatable with a friction with the wall surface of the friction torque generating bore, and a stopper means being provided between the cylindrical member and the first bracket.
These objects and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.